Gysbert Japiks Holckema, better known as simply Gysbert Japiks (1603–1666), was a West Frisian writer, poet,

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

, and

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

Life

Japiks was born in

Bolsward Bolsward (, West Frisian: ''Boalsert'') is a city in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Bolsward has a population of just under 10,200. It is located 10 km W.N.W. of Sneek. History The town is founded on th ...

, Friesland, as Gysbert Japiks Holckema or Holkema. Japiks used his

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, ...

and not his surname in his writing. Japiks was a school teacher by profession. In 1656, three of his children had died of the plague and Japiks's eyesight had been affected by the disease. Except for his son Salves, he would lose all his children and his wife to disease. In 1666, Japiks died of the plague. Japiks started writing from an early age. He wrote in Dutch, Frisian and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. He admired the

poets

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

and

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, but was also an enthusiast for his own West Frisian ''memmetaal'', or

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

. His first known poetry dates back from 1639. In his early works Japiks portrayed the life of rural Friesland, and was characterised by excessive

alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...

. Much of his work were translations and reworkings of Latin poets, but also the Dutch poets Vondel and

Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...

featured prominently in his work. His first published work in book form was ''Friessche Tjerne'' (1640). In 1644, Franciscus Junius was researching Old German languages, and visited Japiks for work and information about the West Frisian language. Around 1650, Japiks and Abbe Freerks Gabbema started a letter exchange most of which still exists in which Gabbema encouraged Japiks to publish and avoid

Dutch orthography Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments. Legal basis In the Netherlands, the official spelling is regulated ...

in his Frisian writings. His publisher Rintjus however was reluctant to publish in Frisian. His work was the most notable in that language of his day and had the effect of elevating Frisian to literary status.Roderick Jellema, ''Country fair: poems from Friesland since 1945 in Frisian and English'' (Eerdmans, 1985), pp. xiv–xv Japiks's orthography with a much more nuanced and phonetically correct spelling which is significantly different from the Dutch orthography, is very similar to the current official spelling. The poems of Japiks were published in ''Friessche Tjerne'' (1640) and also posthumously in ''Fryske Rijmlerye'' (1668).

Songs

Japiks's Frisian songs were

contrafacta In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...

to well-known tunes by composers such as Goudimel,

Bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

, and Pierre Guédron. A selection from them was recorded by Frisian singers and Camerata Trajectina in 2003.

Example

First part of the song in the original, modern and English version:

Gysbert Japicx House

The house in which Gysbert Japiks was born, was bought in 1979 by his descendants Arjen Holkema and Trijntje Holkema-Slot and turned into a museum. The museum was opened 25 September 1997 by Aad Nuis, State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science. The House also contains the local tourist agency and a bookstore specializing in the Frisian language.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Gysbert Japicx at Digital Library for Dutch Literature
(in Frisian and Dutch - ''Wirken'' available for free download)
Gysbert Japicx House
(in Dutch and Frisian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Japiks, Gysbert 1603 births 1666 deaths 17th-century deaths from plague (disease) Dutch male poets Neo-Latin poets West Frisian-language writers People from Bolsward